Crazy Cat Lady Chapter 4 - The Aftermath

crazy_cat_lady

1. Measure, and write down, actual measurements of kids bedrooms so we can plan furniture layout.
DD's room is 12' x 8'2" Long and skinny...

2. Go to carpet shop and investigate a remnant for ds room.
I actually love that carpet shop. It has a whole floor of remnants! Appears that grey and beige are very much the colours of the moment. And I got carpet for both kids rooms, with fitting, for £198. What an absolute bargain of mega proportions - they are being fitted on Monday. I said to the man in the shop 'ds has destroyed his carpet and I want the cheapest thing you have that will fit his room'. Luckily it was a mid grey thing and not the sparkly pink thing that I had been looking at. Turns out the grey one had been mispriced at £39 instead of £89 for the remnant, but they sold it to me for £39 anyway. Got a lovely stain resistant remnant for dd too for £89 - also grey, but she chose it and it was cheap. And the man will fit on Monday for £60, plus cost for new door carpet holder thing that goes under the doors into the bedrooms. He said I will probably not need new underlay, but just to check when I rip the old carpet up and put it in the skip - if it needs doing he will add that for £20 for both rooms.
3. Finish decorating in dd room.
Wasn't certain we would get that done but the new tin of paint arrived at 5pm so we managed to finish it.
4. Get ds to finish clearing his tip.
This is in progress. Very, very slow progress indeed  
5. Money shuffling and budgeting.
I was rich(ish) for a morning, but by 3pm I had shuffled everything over to the credit card minus the cost of the carpets. So the beds are paid off, decorating stuff paid off and a nice chunk of my o/s balance as well. 
6. Crochet and get on with finishing stuff off - too many things on the go at once.
This is also in progress
7. Hoover through (but only if the kids are done with their rooms because that just makes more mess)
Nope - see #4
8. Attempt to do something with the dumping ground that is my kitchen.
Also nope - this will become urgent by Friday when I have a friend coming round to make sure I try cherry sours (?) because I don't know what I'm missing. We'll get drunk and eat too much but it will be great fun.
9. Top up shop from foods of the frozen farm
Always seem to be averting a chicken crisis.

Speaking of crises... I got a phone call at 5.30 from a very apologetic skip company. Who can't get me a skip until Monday - although I had asked for it tomorrow. Good job my garden already looks like a 'recycling centre' otherwise I might have been really upset. I now have a dismantled bed and mattress and two broken chests of drawers added to the other carnage out there. I was all lovely about it and said it would be fine to just deliver it whenever they could get it to me (I will just make sure I actually hold onto it for the full fortnight this time) which is going to be Monday. I shall continue to stack 'recycling' in the garden and then when it finally arrives I just have to move the rubbish from the garden to the skip. Easy(ish)
It's well past 8pm now and I'm going to get this blanket I'm making for my mam finished tonight - then I need to get on testing a shawl pattern for my friend. As I don't wear shawls this will also be one for my mam when it's done. So crochet is well underway - I'm also showered, fed and ready for an early night. I will start in ds room tomorrow unless he continues to drag his feet about clearing up in there, in which case the stairs are getting done. I might as well before the momentum does one altogether. DD has pointed out that my room is being somewhat neglected with no new carpet or decorating. There's lots of leftover paint so if I'm still going by the time the rest of the house is done and I'm feeling up to it, I will also paint my own room. Can't be bothered with getting a new carpet though. Mine is still fairly reasonable to be fair. I said that it was more important that she and ds were happy with their rooms as I had my living room
Right. Onwards with catching up on Holby and finishing this blanket. Yay!

Jellytotts

Memory foam mattresses roll up really well, tie top and bottom with some string and you should be able to manhandle into your car.  At a push use cling film to wrap round to keep it all compressed.  Alternatively a serrated kitchen knife slices through it well.  We cut our last one into 3 strips, rolled it up tight and tied.  

crazy_cat_lady

Gosh, why didn't I check in yesterday? I think I was maybe a bit busy and by the time I stopped I was a bit too tired for getting the laptop out. We've made a decent start in ds room. Got the old carpet up and into the garden in preparation for the arrival of the skip on Monday, and got 2 coats of paint on the ceiling and paintwork. I haven't been in there this morning to see if it needs a third coat, but his room is the first one that has needed 2 coats on the ceiling because he'd made such a mess in there. How he had ever gotten to the point that he could write on his ceiling I have no idea - but he had.
That took quite a bit longer than I thought, but in theory there should just be the walls to do now and it's a small room... whether or not we get anything done today remains to be seen. He has a friend coming over during the day and I have a friend coming over later tonight so we may not get the chance. I think it will take three coats so I'd quite like to get the first one on asap - however apart from painting, I already have another 15 things on my list of things to do today so could well be in for another day of not being able to keep up with myself.
On top of that I haven't slept well. It feels as though I've been properly cheated because my new mattress arrived yesterday so I felt obliged to get it straight on the bed to sleep on last night (so my old mattress is now also clogging up the garden - my neighbours must really love me) and it is so amazing. I felt so comfortable and like I could lie on it all day and night and I was really excited about sleeping on it. How dare it then be too blimming warm to sleep last night followed by the postie delivering dd's latest online purchases at ten past seven this morning. So I'm sitting here with a cuppa on the go, in the queue to a travel company chasing a missing refund. I was in the queue for almost 2 hours yesterday and didn't get to speak to anyone, but this is for a trip planned in March that was cancelled. Part of my refund has arrived but £200 is missing somewhere. I thought if I got in the queue when the lines opened I might get through quicker. 20 mins so far and no progress - I know that they're busy but I think I have waited long enough now - something has obviously gone wrong and nobody is replying to my emails either.
After that I have to drive up to work just to hand my laptop in. It is officially summer - the kids 'last day' was yesterday and I finish at 12. Having a little face to face meeting while I'm at work, but obviously at a distance, and then that will be it for me until 7 September I put the 'work desk' away late last night (my living room looks twice the size now) so it almost feels real. It definitely will when I get back later... 
It was weigh day yesterday - another 3lb gone. I'm chuffed and it gives me the motivation to keep going with the horror of decorating and the potential decluttering (I wish the skip was here). However, I have two at home social events over the next week which will involve food and alcohol so I'm not hopeful for next week.
Best get on then - get a couple of things crossed off the list while I'm still on hold. Please cross everything for me that I get through to someone this morning. I know that these companies are rushed off their feet but I really do need to speak to someone now. It's playing on my mind and stopping me from getting other stuff done because my brain keeps reminding me of that.

janb5

Love reading your progress repirts and so nuch achieved!
Cant believe you ve got the decorating done.  It nust look amazing and fresher.
I've got to bite the bullet and get a new bed + mattress.  
Pschologically too it's much needed

Chrystal

Hope you managed to finally speak to someone about the refund?

You're making fantastic progress wih the decorating.. I'm just procastinating about everything and driving myself mad!

Enjoy your social nibbles/drink.  Just cut back on everything else that's 'naughty' for that week

f0xh0les

Your weight loss is brillant. Well done you.   If you know that you have people over, then give yourself permission to have that time off.  It doesn't mean the whole day is a waste. They won't be there for every meal!

crazy_cat_lady

Well. Today is a good news bad news kind of day...
I haven't done any decorating. Just couldn't bother myself with it... but I've done LOADS of other stuff. Went to work, had my meeting and saw people, handed my laptop in, went into 1 shop with mask to buy bread and milk and chavvy alcoholic drinks for later on tonight, cleaned the bathroom, tidied downstairs and hoovered right through the house.
I didn't get to speak to anyone this morning unfortunately. I waited as long as I possibly could but after 70 mins I needed to go into work. I don't know whether or not to just leave it a bit longer then chase it or keep trying. Also started getting a bit 'meh' about the fact that we should be going to Bulgaria on Sunday but now we're obviously not. I was mooching around the holiday sites and I found a 4 day B&B break to The Canaries for less that £600 for the 3 of us - but the kids don't seem bothered. Just me that really wants to get away then? There's no point if they don't want to come...
Then I got another call from the people I'm hiring the skip from asking if I could possibly wait until Tuesday. I asked if I had any other choice as my garden is overflowing with dismantled furniture, mattresses and general rubbish, and of course he said no followed by 'It is only one day'. I asked if he was aware that I'd already been pushed back from yesterday, and he wasn't. I said of course I could wait but I was now getting desperate and I wasn't pleased that I was told I could have one on Thursday when in actual fact I'd need to wait 5 days and my garden looks like a 'recycling centre'. They've refunded me 15% of the cost (which according to my maths is about £40). Spoke to the neighbours just to let them know that the dump isn't a permanent arrangement and explain the issue with the skip. Will not complain further as they have promised 100% that there will be a skip on Tuesday.
So, it's officially the summer holidays. Work is done for 7 weeks and I am tired. It's been a very different sort of year but I definitely have worked. And I definitely need a rest from working. I actually feel a bit sad for some reason. The summer hols are usually fabulous and much looked forward to but it's going to be a bit like every other day of the past few months I suspect. Nothing really to look forward to (except a decluttered and decorated house) and we can't really go anywhere or do anything (at least the kids don't want to anyway). Ah well. It'll be because I'm tired. A few drinks and good company will sort that in no time.

f0xh0les

Just imagine what it is going to be like when the house is decorated, the kids are all happy in their space - that they helped decorate and arrange themselves - and the weather gets colder and you are in a better financial position to enjoy The C Word and decorating your nice clean tidy house with holly and baubles, and drinking gin  in the sparkly bathtub while the cats sing carols to you and dunk the end of their tails in the bathwater.

I know where you are coming from, it feels like a bit of a waste if you don't go away over the summer, but this one is for you. 

This is an investment in your family and your home and your financial future.

When the weather is yuck you might be able to get a few days away, maybe at Feb half term or Easter.

So just chill and enjoy your Lambr1n1 or whatever alcoholic Tizer you have bought in for your guest.

f0xh0les

Sometimes it sucks having to be the grown up, but that is why they invented alcohol.

beanielou

Happy holidays